Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), threatened to make criminal referrals during a hearing on foreign aid on Wednesday.
“This committee, based on this hearing and witness testimonies, will consider recommending investigations and criminal referrals,” Greene said, at the start of her questioning.
The remark followed opening statements from several witnesses, including one who accused USAID of supporting terrorists, lacking proper oversight and engaging in “potentially criminal” activity.
“This committee should take action to ensure that the Department of Justice acts on it and does everything [in] Congress’s power to not just investigate but refer criminal actions to the proper authorities,” said witness Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, during his opening statement.
Greene did not specify who the committee would look into for investigations or referrals. The congresswoman, however, spent much of her remarks at the hearing expressing concern over the way foreign aid was being spent and accusing USAID of being run by Democrats.
“The Democrat-run USAID should not get to use our federal government, our US taxpayer dollars, as their party piggy bank to push their radical agenda in countries that we have no business giving money to,” Greene said in her opening remarks.
“Maybe we should consider investigating whether USAID funding has made it back to Democrat campaigns. Has it affected elections?” she later added.
Greene, during the hearing, suggested President Biden used USAID to protect his son, Hunter Biden, by calling for the removal of a prosecutor general of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin, while serving in the Obama administration.
Greene repeated a frequent GOP talking point that Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion of a USAID grant if Shokin was not fired, claiming the then-vice president did so because the prosecutor was investigating Ukrainian energy company Burisma, on whose board Hunter Biden served.
“Is USAID supposed to be used as leverage by a president to protect his son?” Greene asked witness Max Primorac, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
“No, we call that corruption,” Primorac responded.
While Biden did threaten to withhold U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired, by that point Shokin was no longer investigating Burisma, and the international community was in agreement over a push to oust the prosecutor over corruption charges.
During Greene’s closing remarks, she again floated the prospect of criminal referrals.
“What we have heard today is that USAID has been used as a tool by Democrats to brainwash the world with globalist propaganda to force regime changes around the world,” Greene said.
“But if USAID funded terrorism that resulted in the death of Americans,” Greene continued, “then this committee will be making criminal referrals.”
Democrats have denounced the USAID cuts, claiming they would roll back progress globally.
